RE: Challenge To Systems Thinking

[Marc Richardson <MRichardson@jaeoregon.com>]

Isn't there an inherent contradiction here? Most of the subscribers to this
list live in a country where capitalism is the driving economic force. By
its very nature, capitalism is competitive. Bringing about the greatest
value to society at large is subordinated to bringing about the greatest
profit to the company and individuals involved. Competition has its pros and
its cons. One of the pro's is that it leads to the discovery of many
different ways of designing and building any particular product or service
with the one which delivers superior value gaining dominant market share.
The con is well known to this group: suboptimization. This results in a sea
full of sharks competing for scarce resources where the biggest shark
usually wins. The participants in this system are tempted, one might even
say, encouraged, to resort to monopolizing (read mergers), rightsizing (read
lay-offs) and untruthful accounting practices, witness today's scandals of
Enron and all. How do we square Dr. Deming's message with the juggernaut of
globalization and world competition?

Marc Richardson
Sr. Q.A. Eng.